"So this one ought to be one that gets the attention of everyone. The former editor of Breitbart News, Steve Bannon, is now a permanent member of the National Security Council by executive decree. From the order: The PC shall have as its regular attendees the Secretary of State, the Secretary of the Treasury, the Secretary of Defense, the Attorney General, the Secretary of Homeland Security, the Assistant to the President and Chief of Staff, the Assistant to the President and Chief Strategist, the National Security Advisor, and the Homeland Security Advisor. The Director of National Intelligence and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff shall attend where issues pertaining to their responsibilities and expertise are to be discussed. The Counsel to the President, the Deputy Counsel to the President for National Security Affairs, and the Director of the Office of Management and Budget may attend all PC meetings. So Reince Preibus and Steve Bannon are permanent members, but the Director of National Intelligence and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, not so much. On what planet would there be business before the National Security Council's Principal's Committee that would NOT concern the DNI or the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff? Is THIS how they are rebuilding and respecting the military? By excluding them from national security decisions so a political hack and a Nazi sympathizer can take their place? We're heading for a terrible place."

"Donald Trump has reorganized the National Security Council – elevating his chief political strategist Steve Bannon, and demoting the Director of National Intelligence and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Bannon will join the NSC’s principals committee, the top inter-agency group advising the President on national security. Meanwhile, the Director of National Intelligence and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff will now attend meetings only when “issues pertaining to their responsibilities and expertise are to be discussed,” according to the presidential memorandum issued Saturday. Political strategists have never before participated in National Security Council principals meetings because the NSC is supposed to give presidents nonpartisan, factual advice. But forget facts. Forget analysis. This is the Trump administration. And what does Bannon have to bring to the table? In case you forgot, before joining Donald Trump’s inner circle Bannon headed Breitbart News, a far-right media outlet that has promoted conspiracy theories and is a platform for the alt-right movement, which espouses white nationalism. This is truly scary."

"The prospect of elevating Bannon—often accused of racism and sympathizing with white nationalists due to the noxious views expressed on Breitbart—first to the White House and then to the defense establishment, without election or Senate review, is just too much for many."

"As Bannon said last summer, Trump is just a “blunt instrument” and at this point it doesn’t matter if he “gets it” or not. In his new role as Trump’s Rasputin, Bannon is now in a position to literally make his dreams of destruction come true."

"Among those claiming that Trump’s plan will spur economic growth are the same folks who told us that a trickle-down tax cut experiment in Kansas in 2013 would bring an “immediate and lasting boost” to the state’s economy. Four years later, that immediate and lasting boost has not only failed to materialize, but the opposite has happened: Kansas’s economy has grown more slowly than surrounding economies and the national average. The state’s bond rating has been downgraded and its budget can charitably be described as being in shambles."

http://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/1/31/14453740/trump-medicare-prescription-drugs
"The United States doesn’t have a nationalized health care system, but we do have Medicare for senior citizens, and since the USA is a very large country, that’s still a huge potential bulk purchaser. But a 2003 law written by congressional Republicans and signed by George W. Bush prohibits the federal government from using that negotiating power. As recently as January 11, President-elect Trump was promising to revisit this policy. “Pharma has a lot of lobbies, a lot of lobbyists and a lot of power. And there’s very little bidding on drugs,” he said at a press conference at Trump Tower in Manhattan. “We’re the largest buyer of drugs in the world, and yet we don’t bid properly.” Today he apparently changed his mind. According to Herb Jackson, the designated pool reporter for the day, Trump’s new policy on prescription drugs is that drug companies should get tax cuts and deregulation"

"But the big pattern here—beyond the obvious notion that the GOP is hellbent on a political vendetta to obliterate all things Obama, regardless of their real-life positive impacts for American society—is that Congress is driving this process, not the White House. All Donald Trump is doing is signing papers and citing talking points from the script that’s put before him."

"Goldman Sachs, again, has one of its own, Steven Mnuchin, as Treasury Secretary and Gary Cohn as chair of the National Economic Council. Other Goldman Sachs alumni in the Trump administration include chief White House strategist Steven Bannon, Jay Clayton as head of the Securities and Exchange Commission, and Dina Powell as a White House adviser. Trump may be setting a record for Goldman Sachs appointees."

http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/news/a52535/trump-administration-dangerously-retrograde/
"slowly and steadily, an actual government has been forming, and it is the most dangerously retrograde government that our system has produced in at least the past 150 years. It is secretive and it is resistant to any empirical information that it does not want to hear. It is grotesquely anti-science. It seeks to roll back progressive achievements dating back to Teddy Roosevelt and it has the power to do so, even if it is in its own bungling way. And it really hasn't gotten rolling yet. Oh, yeah, they may have picked a replacement for Antonin Scalia. His name is Neil Gorsuch. His mother, Anne Gorsuch, was the woman that the Reagan administration selected to destroy the EPA from within, a job that Scott Pruitt has been handed by the current administration. Anne Gorsuch eventually was held in contempt of Congress. The game plan never changes, no matter how incompetent the quarterback may seem."

"A leaked copy of the Trump team’s plan for the EPA calls for slashing its budget, “terminating climate programs,” ending auto fuel-economy standards, and executing “major reforms of the agency’s use of science and economics.” The Trump administration has frozen EPA’s grants and contracts, cutting off funding for everything from cleanup of toxic sites to testing of air quality. EPA employees have been ordered not to share information via social media, press releases, or new website content"

http://thedailybanter.com/2017/01/trump-is-disintegrating-further-into-madness/
"Both The Washington Post and The New York Times ran stories on Tuesday, revealing a chief executive who's quick to rage, easily bored and who's obsessed with his reputation and legitimacy. The Times reported: Mr. Trump grew increasingly angry on Inauguration Day after reading a series of Twitter messages pointing out that the size of his inaugural crowd did not rival that of Mr. Obama’s in 2009. But he spent his Friday night in a whirlwind of celebration and affirmation. When he awoke on Saturday morning, after his first night in the Executive Mansion, the glow was gone, several people close to him said, and the new president was filled anew with a sense of injury. The new president is injured by... crowd sizes? The Women's March was only the first out of many, by the way, minus the rallies following Election Day, and Trump's already completely flummoxed by his own insecurities and weaknesses. Meanwhile, The Washington Post informed us: President Trump had just returned to the White House on Saturday from his final inauguration event, a tranquil interfaith prayer service, when the flashes of anger began to build. Trump turned on the television to see a jarring juxtaposition — massive demonstrations around the globe protesting his day-old presidency and footage of the sparser crowd at his inauguration, with large patches of white empty space on the Mall. As his press secretary, Sean Spicer, was still unpacking boxes in his spacious new West Wing office, Trump grew increasingly and visibly enraged…Over the objections of his aides and advisers — who urged him to focus on policy and the broader goals of his presidency — the new president issued a decree: He wanted a fiery public response, and he wanted it to come from his press secretary. In other words, the President Of The United States is completely butthurt over the colossal magnitude of the protests. Worse, he clearly can't hold it together -- more evidence of his horrendously erratic temperament and upside-down instincts."

https://theintercept.com/2017/01/24/get-ready-for-the-first-shocks-of-trumps-disaster-capitalism/
"In the Katrina aftermath, the attacks on vulnerable people, carried out in the name of reconstruction and relief, did not stop there. In order to offset the tens of billions going to private companies in contracts and tax breaks, in November 2005 the Republican-controlled Congress announced that it needed to cut $40 billion from the federal budget. Among the programs that were slashed were student loans, Medicaid and food stamps. In other words, the poorest people in the United States subsidized the contractor bonanza twice: First, when Katrina relief morphed into unregulated corporate handouts, providing neither decent jobs nor functional public services; and, second, when the few programs that directly assist the unemployed and working poor nationwide were gutted to pay those bloated bills. This is the disaster capitalism blueprint, and it aligns with Trump’s own track record as a businessman all too well."

"Politifact reported that Trump's statements were either mostly false, false, or pants on fire 70% of the time The Toronto Star collected almost 500 lies Trump told during the campaign. As Matt Shuman writes, "Smith is also chairman of the Media Fairness Caucus. A newsletter for the caucus published Tuesday proclaims, among other things, the headline “Breitbart News Surpasses 3 Million Likes"."

http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/39199-marc-short-koch-dark-money-operative-is-trump-s-liaison-to-congress
"When the history of Donald Trump's administration is written, people may point to the appointment of a Koch Brothers' operative to a little-known White House position as a turning point in Trump's evolution from unorthodox Republican candidate to doctrinaire corporate politician. Think of it as a merger, or an acquisition. His administration hires suggest that Trump, who ran a heterodox and intermittently populist (if consistently bigoted) campaign, has been joining forces with the more established corporate extremism of the Republican Party establishment."

"The president signed executive orders Tuesday that cut off all new contracts and grants for the Environmental Protection Agency — and he also banned the agency’s employees from providing updates on social media or to journalists, the Associated Press reported."

"Before Donald Trump took the oath of office, he was facing more active lawsuits than any prior president. But the suit that was filed at 9am on Monday, January 23, in federal district court in New York City by some of the nation’s top ethics lawyers and constitutional scholars could affect all Americans."

"Andrew Puzder, Donald Trump’s nominee for labor secretary, is uniquely unqualified for that job. As secretary, he’d be charged with enforcing health and safety, overtime and other labor laws. But as CEO of CKE Restaurants, the parent company of Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr., he’s made his considerable fortune from violating these very same laws"

"when it comes to Trump’s bigoted influence on the judiciary, it’s not just SCOTUS we should be concerned about. A Trump-Pence administration filling a record number of federal court vacancies is terrifying — and will almost certainly happen. Thanks to Republican intransigence in the Senate — remember then Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s 2010 promise to block everything? — President-elect Trump is set to inherit over 100 judicial vacancies this week. If that sounds like A LOT, it’s because it’s twice the number Obama inherited from Bush who, in turn, inherited 80 from Clinton. In his pre-Tea Party attempt to build a bipartisan coalition, Obama was slow to nominate (Bush hit the ground running) and eventually faced an almost complete refusal to confirm in the Senate. Bush, on the other hand, enjoyed bipartisan support during his administration with a 97% success rate for district nominees, the majority of whom were confirmed faster than Obama’s nominees. President-elect Trump is set to inherit over 100 judicial vacancies this week. In 2013, Obama himself addressed the historic intransigence by noting that, “Time and again, congressional Republicans cynically used Senate rules and procedures to delay and even block qualified nominees from coming to a full vote.” As a result, he said, “my judicial nominees have waited three times longer to receive confirmation votes than those of my Republican predecessor.” Three times longer. And it got worse after Republicans captured the Senate in 2015. Trump, on the other hand, could conceivably be handed a rubber stamp for his nominees with hearings and confirmation votes being mere formalities (this list provides a comprehensive look at the confirmation process for judgeships)."

https://thinkprogress.org/trump-racial-gerrymander-civil-rights-48f4277f04fb#.q00dth1vx
"John Gore, who Trump appointed as a deputy assistant attorney general in the Justice Department’s civil rights division, is not a civil rights lawyer. Until recently, he was a partner at Jones Day, a large law firm employing many prominent Republican lawyers, where he litigated business cases ranging from antitrust to product liability. Gore, has, however, worked on some civil rights-related issues — on the side of people who were accused of violating civil rights laws — including several cases alleging illegal racial gerrymanders."

"Kellyanne Conway’s appearance on Meet The Press Sunday morning may not have enhanced her reputation as an expert spinner after she defended Press Secretary Sean Spicer’s deliberate press conference falsehood as “alternative facts".

"Consider the following. Donald Trump does not believe in freedom of the press. Donald Trump threatens his political enemies with violence and/or prison. Donald Trump uses ethnocentrism, bigotry, nativism and racism to mobilize his voters. Donald Trump does not believe in standing norms of democratic governance or tradition. Donald Trump is a misogynist. Donald Trump is obsessed with “strength” and his own “virility.” Donald Trump promises “law and order.” Donald Trump is a militant nationalist. Donald Trump traffics in conspiracy theories and lies. Donald Trump admires authoritarians and political strongmen. Donald Trump’s most recent press conference was modeled on the way Vladimir Putin manipulates Russia’s news media. Donald Trump has surrounded himself with a cabal that consists of family members and self-interested Cabinet appointees, who — like him — stand to enrich themselves through the agencies they are supposed to administer in the public interest."

"You may be confused, as an English speaker. Trump, a billionaire real estate developer and serial grifter who founded a phony university that defrauded thousands, has appointed a cabinet of billionaires and multi-millionaires, the wealthiest and most elite cabinet in American history, which even includes the CEO of petroleum giant Exxon-Mobil. How, you might ask, can he represent this coup by the super-rich as ‘giving’ power ‘back to’ ‘the people’? The people wouldn’t even be allowed on the grounds of the gated communities where Trump’s officials live. The confusion arises from thinking in English instead of 1930s German."

http://www.salon.com/2017/01/20/the-butchers-bill-has-come-due-president-donald-trump-is-about-to-victimize-his-own-voters/
"Social scientists have repeatedly shown the ways that American voters reason backward from their conclusions and ignore inconvenient information. The vast majority of Trump voters received their information from Fox News: Disinformation and lies are taken as truth; the phenomenon of circular and self-limiting knowledge that social scientists call “epistemic closure” creates right-wing political zombies. Racism, authoritarianism, bigotry and ethnocentrism are a toxic (and politically intoxicating) mix."

https://thinkprogress.org/trump-inaugural-speech-debunked-f1e79dcfabf2#.ixlv7oqbh
"But as was the case during Trump’s similarly dire Republican National Convention speech, many of the claims he used to paint his picture of “American carnage” were false. In other instances, Trump referred to real problems, but didn’t mention that he has no plan to fix them. Here are some of the ways in which Trump tried to deceive the American people about the state of their country during his first speech as president."

http://addictinginfo.org/2017/01/19/congratulations-republicans-you-got-played/
"For eight years, we all saw a swarm of friends and acquaintances regurgitate the most asinine conspiracy theories about President Obama imaginable. Whether they came from Sarah Palin or Alex Jones, right-wing looney tunes were always a far cry from the truth. Today we have a new term for it: fake news. But we must always remember what it truly is: conspiracy theories."

Paul Krugman Reveals Just How Dangerously Incompetent Trump Is Already Proving to Be @alternet: "So the typical Trump nominee, in everything from economics to diplomacy to national security, is ethically challenged, ignorant about the area of policy he or she is supposed to manage and deeply incurious. Some, like Michael Flynn, Mr. Trump’s choice as national security adviser, are even as addicted as their boss to internet conspiracy theories. This isn’t a team that will compensate for the commander in chief’s weaknesses; on the contrary, it’s a team that will amplify them. Why does this matter? If you want a model for how the Trump-Putin administration is likely to function (or malfunction), it’s helpful to recall what happened during the Bush-Cheney years. People tend to forget the extent to which the last Republican administration was also characterized by cronyism, the appointment of unqualified but well-connected people to key positions. It wasn’t as extreme as what we’re seeing now, but it was striking at the time. Remember “Brownie, you’re doing a heck of a job”? And it caused very real damage. In particular, if you want some notion of what Trump governance is likely to look like, consider the botched occupation of Iraq. People who knew anything about nation-building weren’t wanted; party loyalists — and corporate profiteers — took their place. There’s even a little-known connection: Betsy DeVos’s brother, Erik Prince, founded Blackwater, the mercenary outfit that, among other things, helped destabilize Iraq by firing into a crowd of civilians. The Trump administration is shaping up to be Bush-Cheney-like, on steroids. Blind ideology, blind loyalty, contempt for knowledge, nuance and expertise, and lack of ethics are the values the incoming president rewards."

"Donald Trump and his team have proposed a budget that will not only gut the kind of programs Republicans always take aim at— focused on arts and culture, civil rights, and science—but also those dedicated to law enforcement and victim’s safety. The slash-and-burn budgetary approach is based largely on recommendations from the Heritage Foundation, a hard-right think tank that receives partial funding from several Koch brothers-backed entities."

http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/news/a52417/trump-russia-links/
"The counterintelligence investigation centers at least in part on the business dealings that some of the president-elect's past and present advisers have had with Russia. Mr. Manafort has done business in Ukraine and Russia. Some of his contacts there were under surveillance by the National Security Agency for suspected links to Russia's Federal Security Service, one of the officials said. Mr. Manafort is among at least three Trump campaign advisers whose possible links to Russia are under scrutiny. Two others are Carter Page, a businessman and former foreign policy adviser to the campaign, and Roger Stone, a longtime Republican operative."

"When asked by MSNBC's Katy Turr during his first official news conference on Thursday if President-elect Donald Trump would release, if not his tax returns, at least a list of those people or institutions to whom he is indebted, incoming press secretary Sean Spicer made clear that information would not be forthcoming."

https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/green/news/2017/01/17/296621/gov-rick-perry-would-put-science-and-scientists-at-risk-as-energy-secretary/
"Scientific integrity ensures that trustworthy information reaches decisionmakers and the public by relying on transparency, peer review and open discussion, the involvement of experts based on their own integrity and experience, and the removal of political influence. The DOE and its National Laboratories depend on and exercise these values to deliver new technologies as flashy as 3-D printed cars and as transformative as wide band-gap semiconductors. More importantly, the department and its laboratories apply their values across collaborative efforts with universities, industries, and other countries to deliver new business opportunities, enhance trade, and meet international goals, such as curbing climate change. The Clean Energy Ministerial, one example of this collaborative work, brings energy departments from more than 24 countries together to tackle common obstacles to technology deployment. Perry has repeatedly failed to meet such standards of integrity when interacting with the scientific community or using scientific information in policymaking."

"During his confirmation hearing before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions on Wednesday, Rep. Price (R-Ga.) danced around questions related to Medicare and Medicaid cuts, health coverage for young people and people with pre-existing conditions, and his financial investments."

https://thinkprogress.org/pruitt-earthquakes-dbaacffdaec1#.6nzw03piw
"In 2010, the year Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt (R) was elected, the state experienced 43 earthquakes. In 2016, the year Pruitt was nominated by President-elect Donald Trump to run the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Oklahoma registered 518 earthquakes. Sixteen of them were magnitude 4.0 or greater, including the state’s biggest ever, a 5.8 quake that rattled houses from their foundations. There is no question these earthquakes are caused by wastewater injections from oil and gas operations. Over the past decade, the state’s biggest industry has transitioned to hydraulic fracturing technology, which uses massive amounts of chemical and sand-laced water, injected at high pressure into the ground. The industry boomed — but it also was left with significant amounts of unusable water. The cheapest, easiest disposal method is to simply inject the water back into the ground. As state attorney general, Pruitt is responsible for advising and defending state agencies on legal issues. He is also responsible for protecting Oklahoma citizens. But under his watch, earthquakes grew exponentially, in both size and frequency. Oklahoma’s ground literally can’t take the wastewater. The pressure is chipping away at the state’s fault line. And some legal experts say Pruitt could be on the hook for a potentially devastating earthquake."

"The Trumpublicans are intent on manipulating the shock of Donald Trump’s victory to roll back much of the New Deal and Great Society; ram through unvetted Cabinet appointments intent on undermining the legal mandate of the very Departments they are charged with leading; legitimize unprecedented conflicts of interest; and intimidate opponents, professional civil servants, and the press, in a rapid Blitzkrieg, before the opposition even knows what hit them. This is a classic case of what Naomi Klein termed “The Shock Doctrine” in her 2007 book of the same title. A quick tutorial on The Shock Doctrine: In times of political, economic, or social crisis (including wars, terrorist attacks, natural disasters, economic panics, coups and other dramatic political upheavals) oligarchic forces push through otherwise unpopular “free market” and neoliberal reforms—including deregulation, privatization, tax cuts for the elites, and massive cuts to the social safety net, in the hope that that the resistance won’t have time to organize."

Saturday, January 21, 2017

https://thinkprogress.org/trump-us-protests-9e6b47dc21bd#.dd8yrz3a5
"In the United States, hundreds of thousands of people turned out at hundreds of rallies in all 50 states. In Washington, D.C. alone, the anti-Trump protest is estimated to be double the size of Trump’s inauguration, which took place the previous day. The Associated Press also reported that so many people have crowded the rally in Washington, D.C. that organizers are unable to march to the White House. Organizers later said that they would still march after the rally, but pointed out that it would “take some time” for so many people to make it."

http://www.vox.com/2017/1/21/14345972/boston-denver-chicago-march
Women from across the country have converged on Washington, DC, on Saturday for a massive rally to protest Donald Trump’s election and promote women’s rights. At the same time, there have been rallies organized in major — and not so major — cities across the country." #womensmarch

"The second day of the Trump administration has seen an unprecedented wave of protests swell across the globe, as the Women's March on Washington and its sister marches on all continents—yes, including Antarctica—fight back against the U.S. president's frightening rhetoric. And with an estimated 500,000 marchers on the National Mall in Washington D.C., the Women's March is now the largest inaugural-related protest in U.S. history."

"Trump’s rhetoric and policies attack everyone in America, save for corporations and the rich. Seriously—everyone, even Trump supporters themselves. After all, they drink water, breathe air, work on job sites that are about to become far less safe, have children who require public schooling and an environmental future. Think for a moment about what it means—to real people in real life—to reduce and privatize regulations and enforcement of safeguards for workers and the environment. It’s not about "cost savings" or "less bureaucracy"—it’s about our air, our water, our workplaces. Our wages. Our healthcare (from life-threatening emergencies to prevention). Our safety on the job. Our environment—the one we all need for our future survival, to say nothing of the planet itself. Trump supporters, other than the super-rich, will suffer like everyone else."

"Fascists seek to unite the country behind a smokescreen of patriotism while scapegoating the weak and powerless. “We are one nation, and their pain is our pain,” Trump said. “We share one heart, one home and one glorious destiny.” But his speech was a series of deflections away from the core problem facing the United States: the growing power of a tiny wealthy elite – sometimes called the “1%” but in reality the .001% — over our economy and politics. Trump has populated his Cabinet and top advisors with some of America’s wealthiest and greediest people, corporate robber barons, militarist zealots, Wall Street titans, right-wing conspiracy theorists, anti-Semites, and racists, some of them (like Trump) born wealth but who have demonstrated no inclination for public service or even noblesse oblige. To deflect attention away from the super-rich, Trump – like fascists throughout history – points his fingers at and scapegoats others. In today’s speech, he avoided explicit reference to Mexican immigrants, Muslims, China, Hollywood, the media, unions, and Jews – groups he castigated throughout the campaign. But his address included many dog whistles that his core supporters understand. “We’ve defended other nations’ borders while refusing to defend our own,” was Trump’s dog whistle to America’s white supremacist “alt right” movement, who want to deport undocumented immigrants while eliminating the social safety net from those who live here and contribute to our society. Trump personifies the worst aspects of corrupt crony capitalism. He inherited his father’s real estate empire, made possible by federal government housing subsidies. He has curried favor with Democratic and Republican politicians at the local, state and national level by contributing millions of dollars in campaign donations. He has abused the nation’s bankruptcy and tax laws to avoid his responsibility to his lenders, employees, business partners, and the country as a whole."

Friday, January 20, 2017

"On Saturday, hundreds of thousands of protesters will take to the streets of Washington D.C. for the Women’s March on Washington. It’s set to be a monumental event — potentially one of the largest protests in the U.S. in decades. If you want to be a part of it, but aren’t able to make it to D.C. for the actual march, there are plenty of women’s marches across the country you can participate in."

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/features/the-damage-already-done-by-trumps-presidency-w462022
"Donald Trump moves into the White House already having done damage to the presidency, our democracy, the economy and America's place in the world. We have watched this unfold in the open: Trump has thumbed his nose at custom and the Constitution by refusing to resolve the conflicts of interest that will now shadow his presidency. He has used his Twitter account – a 21st-century bully pulpit – not to unify Americans behind his agenda, but to settle personal scores in a sustained assault on freedom of the press, freedom of assembly and freedom of speech. Trump has installed an inner circle that aims to marginalize millions of our countrymen, even as it seeks to degrade the institutions of our government. Finally, Trump has clutched Russia in a perplexing bear hug. Whether he's done this out of genuine admiration for its brutal regime, because he's indebted to its oligarchs, or because Trump has somehow been compromised by former KGB colonel Vladimir Putin we have yet to resolve. For Americans, and for our NATO allies, none of these alternatives will be reassuring. Republicans in Congress have stood by quietly, almost without objection. They've acted as enablers – even as Trump has inserted himself as the ur-chairman of publicly traded companies, blessing their manufacturing plans or tanking their stock prices with a single tweet. Republicans used to object to politicians "picking winners and losers." Just last July, Speaker Paul Ryan called it "a recipe for a closed economy – for cronyism." History will judge this period harshly."

"About an hour after President Donald Trump was sworn in on Friday, his administration suspended indefinitely a scheduled cut in mortgage insurance premiums—effectively raising costs for middle-class borrowers by about $500 a year."

http://www.politicususa.com/2017/01/19/years-inauguration-sting-memory.html
"For eight years, President Obama has served with class and dignity. In the face of unprecedented obstruction and critics who accused him of being a Kenyan-born Muslim, he didn’t throw temper tantrums on social media – he brushed it off and kept working. Obama never stooped to the level of those who called him un-American and waged racist attacks on him or his family. He combatted the hatred, not by returning it, but by being a role model for fathers and husbands everywhere."

http://addictinginfo.org/2017/01/19/congratulations-republicans-you-got-played/
"For eight years, we all saw a swarm of friends and acquaintances regurgitate the most asinine conspiracy theories about President Obama imaginable. Whether they came from Sarah Palin or Alex Jones, right-wing looney tunes were always a far cry from the truth. Today we have a new term for it: fake news. But we must always remember what it truly is: conspiracy theories."

"Donald Trump and his team have proposed a budget that will not only gut the kind of programs Republicans always take aim at— focused on arts and culture, civil rights, and science—but also those dedicated to law enforcement and victim’s safety. The slash-and-burn budgetary approach is based largely on recommendations from the Heritage Foundation, a hard-right think tank that receives partial funding from several Koch brothers-backed entities."

"So the typical Trump nominee, in everything from economics to diplomacy to national security, is ethically challenged, ignorant about the area of policy he or she is supposed to manage and deeply incurious. Some, like Michael Flynn, Mr. Trump’s choice as national security adviser, are even as addicted as their boss to internet conspiracy theories. This isn’t a team that will compensate for the commander in chief’s weaknesses; on the contrary, it’s a team that will amplify them. Why does this matter? If you want a model for how the Trump-Putin administration is likely to function (or malfunction), it’s helpful to recall what happened during the Bush-Cheney years. People tend to forget the extent to which the last Republican administration was also characterized by cronyism, the appointment of unqualified but well-connected people to key positions. It wasn’t as extreme as what we’re seeing now, but it was striking at the time. Remember “Brownie, you’re doing a heck of a job”? And it caused very real damage. In particular, if you want some notion of what Trump governance is likely to look like, consider the botched occupation of Iraq. People who knew anything about nation-building weren’t wanted; party loyalists — and corporate profiteers — took their place. There’s even a little-known connection: Betsy DeVos’s brother, Erik Prince, founded Blackwater, the mercenary outfit that, among other things, helped destabilize Iraq by firing into a crowd of civilians. The Trump administration is shaping up to be Bush-Cheney-like, on steroids. Blind ideology, blind loyalty, contempt for knowledge, nuance and expertise, and lack of ethics are the values the incoming president rewards."

https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/green/news/2017/01/17/296643/the-many-times-scott-pruitt-chose-polluters-over-childrens-health/
"During his campaign, President-elect Donald Trump railed against so-called pay-to-play politics and started a rallying cry to “drain the swamp” in Washington. Despite this strong rhetoric, journalists and politicians have noted that Trump’s cabinet nominees actually epitomize a system rigged to benefit large corporations at the expense of the public good. His nominee for administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, or EPA—Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt—is no exception. During his career, Pruitt has demonstrated that, given a choice, he will side with large, polluting corporations over the environment and public health, including the health of children. Every time."

"Trump’s plan for repairing our nation’s water systems would be an absolute disaster for just about everyone—except of course, water corporations and Wall Street investors. In fact, some of the same players that brought down our nation’s housing market are poised to repeat the same mistakes—but this time, with our water. Donald Trump is a business tycoon, not a policy expert. It’s therefore disturbing (though not terribly shocking) that his policy proposals favor Wall Street and private interests. Trump's infrastructure plan was crafted by his Commerce Secretary nominee Wilbur Ross, a billionaire who built his fortune helping companies lay off employees, and Peter Navarro, a conservative professor of business at the University of California Irvine."

"More than 500 national, state, and local organizations on Tuesday announced their opposition to Donald Trump's fossil-fuel soaked nominee to run the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Scott Pruitt."

"The CBO estimated that if Congress votes to repeal the ACA—also known as Obamacare—keeping insurance market reforms in place without implementing a new healthcare law, roughly 18 million people would lose their insurance within the first year, and premiums would rise by 20 to 25 percent for individual plans. By 2026, the report found, 32 million people would be out of insurance."

"Donald Trump is fulfilling the role of an authoritarian demagogue so thoroughly that if this whole disaster were a movie, it would be criticized for being formulaic and cliched. His frequently expressed hostility toward the media comes right out of a well-worn copy of the Dictator’s Playbook, and he has repeatedly revealed himself to be an enemy of a free press."

"Elizabeth Warren couldn't wait until Andrew Puzder's confirmation hearing to let the public know just how disastrous a pick he'd be for labor secretary. During a workers forum Thursday, she let her voice be heard -- in front of his Carl's Jr and Hardee's employees."

"In its World Report 2017, the human rights organization highlights President-elect Donald Trump's victory in the U.S., the power grabs of "strongman" leaders in Russia, China, Turkey, and the Philippines, and the rise of right-wing demagogues in Europe, as trends that "denigrate legal standards and disdain factual analysis, directly challenge the laws and institutions that promote dignity, tolerance, and equality." Trump and other populist leaders work from a similar propaganda playbook that supports bigotry and discrimination; scapegoats immigrants and refugees for economic problems; encourages people to give up their rights in favor of authoritarian rule as a defense against outside threats; and foments division between demographics, the report states."

http://billmoyers.com/story/trumps-corporate-cabinet/
"We’re facing the prospect of a government literally of the Exxons, by the Goldman Sachses and for the Kochs. President-elect Donald Trump’s Cabinet and top nominees draw more deeply from an extremist faction of the corporate class than any in memory, and likely in history. We are witnessing the wholesale corporate takeover of the American government. Nothing more plainly shows Trump’s complete cynicism and dishonesty than his absolute betrayal of the core claim of his campaign — to rid Washington of corruption, cronyism and insider dealing. The corporate interests who he properly alleged in the campaign buy politicians will now themselves be directly in charge of the government. With this Cabinet, it is a virtual certainty that this administration will be the most corrupt and scandal-prone in American history. And it is absolute certainty that, by design, they will pursue a policy agenda that serves the interests of the corporate class against and does deep harm to the American people."

"With a one-sentence change to House rules, last week Republicans made every representative's records "exclusively the personal property of the individual member," giving them "control over such records" so that they can be hidden from the Office of Congressional Ethics - or even criminal investigators."

"Rex Tillerson on Wednesday, under oath, denied the existence of fossil fuel subsidies. This is dangerously incorrect. In fact, the Oil & Gas Industry receives more than $17 Billion in Subsidies per year, and according to our new analysis ExxonMobil likely gets as much as $1 billion of that. Former ExxonMobil CEO, Rex Tillerson, testified in front of the Senate Foreign Relations committee and may be about to head the State Department – and it’s not looking good for the climate. Under Tillerson and his predecessors, Exxon knew that climate change was happening yet spun a massive disinformation campaign to sow doubt about climate science, and spent hundreds of millions buying influence in Washington to block progress on climate pollution. Today Tillerson was at it again, testifying that the science on climate change, and the impact it might have on the world and our country, is still fuzzy. But he also upheld another proud oil and gas industry tradition: denying that the oil and gas industry receives subsidies. There’s a pattern here. Whenever the oil industry faces a problem that truly threatens their business model, they deny it exists."

"Tyrants don’t allow open questioning, and they hate the free press. They want total control. That’s why Trump’s so-called “news conference” on December 11 – the first he’s held in six months – wasn’t really a news conference at all."

"As President-elect Donald Trump's anti-science administration prepares to swoop into Washington, D.C., outgoing Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Ernest Moniz on Wednesday announced a new "scientific integrity policy" meant to protect workers and policies that may be at risk."

http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/1/13/1620064/-Micheal-Flynn-interfered-with-US-sanctions-spoke-directly-with-Russian-ambassador-several-times
"On December 29, President Obama announced measures intended as a reprisal for Russian activities in interfering with the US election. Those actions included expulsion of intelligence operatives and sanctions on Russian officials and agencies involved in the hacking. But Trump’s team didn’t wait until they actually had the controls to begin reassuring the Kremlin. Instead Michael Flynn, Trump’s pick for national security adviser, went to his speed dial. According to a senior U.S. government official, Flynn phoned Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak several times on Dec. 29, the day the Obama administration announced the expulsion of 35 Russian officials as well as other measures in retaliation for the hacking. Why? What did Michael Flynn say to Kislyak? Did he promise to reverse the expulsions? Lift the sanctions? Kiss their boo-boos and make them all better? Because Thursday’s announcement is an executive action, it can be undone by the next administration. But Obama’s last-minute measures put pressure on Trump, who has largely waved off the allegations against Russia, to make a decision about whether to keep the punitive measures in place. One thing seems clear: Trump’s transition team deliberately and directly interfered with the sitting president and the foreign policy of the United States. Because keeping Russia happy is very high on their agenda. It’s roughly the 1000th time someone on Trump’s team appears to have done something that violates the Logan Act. The Logan Act (though never enforced) bars U.S. citizens from correspondence intending to influence a foreign government about “disputes” with the United States. Was its spirit violated? The Trump campaign didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. But even for Trump’s team of Putin-lickin’ idiots, this seems like an extraordinarily blatant moment of sycophantism."

http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/news/a52268/michael-flynn-russia/
"According to a senior U.S. government official, Flynn phoned Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak several times on Dec. 29, the day the Obama administration announced the expulsion of 35 Russian officials as well as other measures in retaliation for the hacking. What did Flynn say, and did it undercut the U.S. sanctions? The Logan Act (though never enforced) bars U.S. citizens from correspondence intending to influence a foreign government about "disputes" with the United States. Was its spirit violated? The Trump campaign didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. Ignatius goes on to give Flynn the benefit of a whopping doubt, speculating that, perhaps, Flynn's call was to soothe ruffled feathers in Moscow over what the current president did. (In my mind, it wasn't Flynn's place to do that, either.) In any case, the murky connections between the incoming American administration and the rapidly solidifying Russian autocracy appear to be expanding the closer the incoming American administration gets to becoming the actual administration. I am not reassured that anyone is yet at the wheel."

"1. He’s the most pro-Russia candidate we’ve ever seen in United States history: This one’s easy. It’s not just that Trump wants to improve relations with Russia (even though, ironically, President Obama was mocked by Republicans for wanting the same thing), it’s that Trump has gone out of his way to praise and defend Vladimir Putin. It’s one thing to express a desire to have better relations with an adversary; it’s quite another when you seem to have more allegiance to an enemy to the United States than you do your own country — which is exactly what Trump seems to have. 2. You don’t have this many ties to pro-Russia individuals by coincidence: You’re telling me that the most pro-Russia candidate in American history just also happened to have several links to people who have very close ties to Russia — including his second campaign manager Paul Manafort who abruptly resigned after an AP report linked him to Russian groups trying to undermine U.S. policies in Europe? Even his nominee for Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, was given a “friendship award” by Putin. 3. He lied about the intelligence briefing being pushed back: In a rather pathetic attempt to cast doubt on U.S. intelligence evidence linking Russia to the cyber attack, last week Trump claimed that the meeting had been delayed until Friday. This was a clear attempt by him to imply that the case against Russia was so weak that intelligence officials needed more time to get their story straight. There’s just one problem with that — the meeting was always scheduled for Friday. So, why would Trump blatantly lie about this? That’s rhetorical because, obviously, this was another example where pro-Russia Donald Trump has done everything he could to attack the credibility of the intel that links the Russian government to an attack on the United States."

"He has been spreading fake news since it was just called “lies,” and he’s shown that winning the presidency will only increase his fake news output. Trump puts out so much misinformation he is a fake news factory unto himself, an artisan of lies, a curator of untruths. Real estate may be his job, but lying is his career, hobby and passion project. Trump has put thousands of fake news stories out there, some enormous and others so small you wonder why he bothers."

"the agency has been able to return "$12 billion to 27 million people caught up in various scams, passed pro-consumer rules on issues like mandatory arbitration and mortgage disclosure, and hit banks for conning customers into paying for expensive add-on products that don’t do much." CFPB was also central in the investigation into Wells Fargo's checking and credit card fraud scandal last year."

"And he opposed reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act. Benign in manner, soft of voice but hard at the core, Jeff Sessions is the perfect figurehead for the resurgent white nationalists who now aim not to make history but reverse it — by a hundred years or more if they can. This is the man to whom Donald Trump is handing the enforcement of our laws from civil and voting rights to environmental protection, antitrust enforcement, housing, employment and all the rest. Expect new laws but little justice, and be vigilant as America’s shadows become ever more crowded with hidden figures of every shade."

"Outrage over President-elect Donald Trump's refusal to divest himself of his global business empire has grown in the wake of his chaotic press conference Wednesday, during which he announced that he would merely hand his businesses over to his sons."

Thursday, January 19, 2017

"the GOP agenda is especially appalling. The Republican agenda calls for still deeper cuts in taxes for corporations and the top 1 percent, and a further easing of the "regulatory burden" on oil, coal and gas companies (including "frackers") and—believe it or not—Wall Street. A tax plan proposed by House Speaker Paul Ryan this summer would give an average annual tax cut of $137,780 to households in the top 1 percent. And we can expect the GOP to pursue deep cuts in spending on education, Head Start, environmental protection, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid because, um, “we can’t afford it.” Remarkably, the Republicans have concluded—as they always do—that the super-rich are getting too little while children, the elderly, the middle class, the poor, and people of color are getting too much. And all of this will be facilitated by a cabinet chock full of laissez-faire billionaires, racists, and libertarian nuts. Trump’s administration is overflowing with Goldman Sachs alums—including Trump’s top economic adviser (Gary Cohn), his Chief Strategist (Steve Bannon) and the Secretary of the Treasury (Steven Mnuchin). Trump’s nominee for Labor Secretary—Andrew Puzder, a fast food CEO—opposes the minimum wage. Workers in his restaurants (Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr.) allege that "wage theft" and sexual harassment are common. Ben Carson, the prospective Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), believes that "poverty is a choice." Trump’s nominee for Energy Secretary is Rick Perry, a lifelong lacky for Big Oil and, further, an idiot. Tump’s nominee for Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, is the CEO of ExxonMobil, where he has spent decades ravaging the planet for profit. Does this all sound familiar? After thirty-five years, it should. This is trickle-down economics. The "logic" here is that the economy will grow if we provide a better "business climate"—lower taxes and fewer regulations will liberate corporations to create jobs. The problem is that it doesn't work."

"During his confirmation hearing on Thursday, former Texas Governor Rick Perry was able to laugh off having once called for abolishing the Department of Energy, which he is now poised to lead, but Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) refused to let him get away "sounding like a hung over frat boy," as one observer put it, when speaking about the crisis of climate change."

"Republican lawmakers around the country are pushing legislation that would criminalize and penalize nonviolent protest, apparently anticipating an upswell of civic engagement during the coming Trump administration."

"At Thursday's hearing before the Senate Finance Committee, U.S. Treasury secretary nominee Steven Mnuchin was forced to defend his offshore holdings and his record at the bank dubbed a "foreclosure machine"."

"Last, week, under the cover of a media bliss-out except among Koch funded right-wing channels, the House of Representatives passed a bill which would effectively repeal future standard setting under every important environmental, public health, consumer protection, labor standards, occupational safety and civil rights law on the books."